Birthday and Vancouver (very long - grab a drink, maybe something to eat)

I'm a month late.  Rory's birthday was Sept. 12, and our trip was the following week.  But better late than never, right? 

We had a very fun day on my sweet girl's 1st birthday.  My parents and Colin's mum were there, along with 2 of Colin's siblings, Emily (the kids' half-sister) and some family friends of ours were all there.  We gathered at a local park and the kids played and we ate and just had a relaxed, fun time. 

(I don't know what happened with that last pic, but I couldn't get my writing to match the others.  Technical difficulties.)

First, the cake.  I was determined to do a pretty fondant cake for my pretty girl.  The fondant turned out to be easier to work with than I thought, but my goodness, the cake underneath turned out to be my problem.  So, I ended up with a store-bought cake underneath and a cake that looks almost exactly like what I envisioned.  Nevermind the piping.  Luckily, that didn't show up in the pictures anyway. 

Love this picture of my girl with her grandpa.  She's quite smitten with him.  The feeling is mutual, I'm pretty sure.

Grandma Hedivan and Emily removing sticks from the balloons, so we could tie them to the table.

Silas would not leave the cake.  Every 30 seconds he was asking if he could have some.

Uncle Mike, handily using one of the balloon sticks, to "remind" Silas not to touch the cake!  Hehe.

Finally!!  Dig in!  He enjoyed it much more than his face indicates.  That's just Silas' interpretation of smiling.  Some days, I wonder if he'll ever smile normally again.  Ahh, 3 year olds... 

Rory, intrigued with fondant.

 Can't decide if she likes it or not.



 







Siblings - not often (ever?) do we get a chance to take a pic of these 4 siblings.  Emily is my kids' half sister on their father's side.  All 4 personalities are pretty clear in this pic, too, ironically.  :)